Tag Archives: Why do internet businesses fail?

Why do so many and most online businesses fail? What are responsible for the fall of most online businesses? Have you started one or two online businesses and on reaching its tenth year, that online business crumbled?

Yes! It does happen. I am here to give you insight and explain why it happens.

Probably, you are among the millions of people who wake up every day from the comfort of their beds, to perform their usual morning routine of washing and eating breakfast to rush to their day-to-day paid job which is usually stressful, boring couple with the harsh treatment receive from boss. In your quest for a better and easier way to make a living, you were opportune to see someone who made it by quitting his own stressful and boring day to day job to become his own boss just by using his own computer at the comfort and ease of his home. So, it becomes so easy for you to reach a conclusion that online business will be an ideal job. You quickly register a domain name; host a website to start an online business with hope that you will make it just like that other guy. The unfortunate story is that failure may be your only option and you may not even be aware of it.

Starting a successful online business is not bread and butter. This is what those get rich quick internet marketer will not tell you because they will rather want you to cough out your hard earn money to buy their worthless eBook.
The simple truth is that most online businesses have failed today. Many research sources have it that about nine out of ten of all internet business start-up fails within the first 120 days. Wow! Nine out of ten!
Why then do internet businesses fail? Here are top 15 reasons why online businesses fail and if properly deal with, the chances that your own internet business will be a successful one will be high.

Why Online Businesses Fail

The top 15 reasons most internet businesses fail are:

1. Not prepared to face failure

If you start an online business thinking that you will succeed without making mistakes or failing at something, it is better you don’t start the business at all because failure is the mother of success and always should be prepare for.
Johnny Cash, one of the most influential American musicians of the 20th century says; “You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don’t try to forget the mistakes, but you don’t dwell on it. You don’t let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.”
Napoleon Hill in his book titled, “Think and Grow Rich” says; “when defeat comes, accept it as a signal that your plans are not sound, rebuild those plans, and set sail once more toward your coveted goal.”

Many people fail in their online business because they are not prepared to face the reality of failure and when it comes, it swallows them up. Failure is always an option and a stepping stone to success, be ready to face it if you want succeed in your online business ventures.

2. Jumping into online business with no knowledge of internet

Knowledge is power! You can’t give what you don’t have. Internet is place where you are trusted for what you know. The first and best thing to do before jumping into an online business is to first study the internet and how it works. Subscribe for valuable internet business eBook and get yourself acquitted with business world of brick and mortar.

3. Not self-disciplined

To become a successful online business owner requires self-discipline. Going to party all night, sleeping until noon and then staying 2 or 3 hours with a computer will not make you rich or a super internet marketer.
There is no magic button to push your website on Google number one search engine result page to gain your website impressive massive traffic and fistfuls cash into your bank account. There are no such magic. Self-discipline and hard work is always the key to success.

4. Refusing to learn

Learning is a continuous process. The internet is an ever changing world; new things emerge on daily basis especially in the world of bricks and mortar. There is always a new thing to learn each day. The moment you refuse to learn or become adamant to changes, your business will cease to grow from that very moment.

5. No business plan

‘If you fail to plan, then you’ve planned to fail’. This is true for all new online business entrants and it best explains why 90% of internet businesses fail. Writing your business plan can help attract investors, loans etc and it is a valuable tool for expansion.

6. Lack of entrepreneurial skill

Every business should be operated as a business whether big or small, real world or brick and mortar. As an entrepreneur you need to understand profit and loss, debt and credit and what makes them up. You mustn’t have a college certificate in business before you can become successful in online business.

It is quite surprising how the same people, who wouldn’t dream of starting a real world business, think they can make it in an online business even though they have no business background. Internet business does not simply mean that you would no longer have to get up every morning and go to work. Online business is ideal for entrepreneurs who have knowledge of doing business.

7. Hiring wrong person

What every website needs is a leader behind it. It is not enough to host a website while you hire someone to write the content and drive traffic to the site for you.

When hiring someone to manage your website for you; you need to hire someone who knows his onion.

Someone who is passionate about your online business niche area and will be ready at all times to initiate new ideas into the business.

Someone who will be readily available at all times to interact with your customers and proffer solutions to your product and services related problems.

Someone who is ready and willing to work hard at all costs in other to see that you are successful in your online business.
Such a person is hard to come by. When you virtually hire the wrong person, your online business gradually fails.

No business has ever succeeded without proper marketing. When you build it, they won’t come — until they hear about it. Every new business needs proper marketing and it should not be a surprise that you may be devoting roughly half of your resources — be it time, labour, or dollars — to building a customer base. Proper online marketing include pay per click (PPC), email marketing, mobile marketing, direct banner advertisement, link exchange, proper search engine marketing (SEM) and so many others.

9. Poor branding

Strong brand are always the people first choice. It takes years to build strong brand. Brand is always a reflection of the quality of your product but it is more of trusting you than trusting the product you offer. Poor branding scare aware your target audience and leaves you at the verge of your online business collapse.

10. Impatient

Internet business is not a get rich quick scheme. You should be ready to dedicate a minimum of four to eight hour each day to your internet business especially when you are just starting newly. You may not start making tons of money within the first six month of your starting of an online business but as the month progresses you will begin to see changes in income generation. How long it will take you to start making money online depends on hard work and nature of your online business.

11. Working with inexperience team

Your business team can either make or mar your online business. You need experienced team if you want to grow and achieve success in your online business venture. It is better to run your online business on your own than running it with an inexperienced team. Inexperienced team have run down many big online businesses.

12. No or poor business model

On what business model are you building your online business? Put every business model that claim to the best for making money online to test before applying to your online business. Remember that a good business model that work for Mr A. may not work Mr. B. In most cases, some changes need to done to the model for it to work for Mr. B.

13. No capital backup

Don’t go to quit your job once if you have one already because you are starting an internet business. Try to raise some funds and save it for some months. This savings will serve as your capital backup until your online business starts to pay you off in spades later. Financial backup are necessary for every business no matter small the business may be.

14. Lack of business mentor

Mentors are exemplary. There is no business that you will not see people who are already into it in one way or the other. Getting one person who is already successful in your choice of online business to guide and intimate you on what are obtainable in the business are one sure way of succeeding.

15. Curiosity

“Curiosity killed the cat” is a popular proverb used to warn against the dangers of unnecessary experimentation or trying. Don’t go to experiment on online business because someone told you that it is an easy way of making money or because you are jobless. Your reasons for starting online business must be genuine and should be built on ground that you have values to offer otherwise failure is your only option.

Having explained the major reasons why many online businesses fail, I want you to know that there is no guarantee of success to any online business. Even multinational companies can fail in their new online business venture. Failure is always an option but the possibility of success can be increased if you apply all that I have mentioned above. Remember the research statistics, “nine out of ten of all internet business start-up fails within the first 120 days”, that means there is still a probability of 10% success. Try to be among the minority (10%) that succeed than the majority (90%) that fails.